First Shift 🏒
One of the great things about the Stars’ run to three consecutive Western Conference finals is the fact they have done it on the backs of some pretty young players.
Wyatt Johnston just turned 22 and has played 51 playoff games. Harley is 23 and has logged 52. Jason Robertson is 25 and has played in 51 playoff games, while Miro Heiskanen is also 25 and has 88. And maybe most impressive, goalie Jake Oettinger is 26 and has played in 60 postseason contests.
“For a goalie of his age, doing what he’s doing right now, it’s a great story and it just shows you how much more there is for him,” Stars GM Jim Nill said Tuesday on the eve of Game 1 against the Edmonton Oilers. “That’s what excites us is he’s just touching his potential at his age. Usually, goalies are 28, 29, 30 when they start to hit their most potential and he’s there right now.”
Oettinger started his path with a huge playoff series against Calgary in 2022. Though he lost in seven games, Oettinger had a 1.81 GAA and .954 save percentage. That cemented him as the team’s No. 1 goalie and he has since followed that with winning six of eight playoff series.
"He's just a goalie that steps up in big moments and is pretty composed," Stars captain Benn said. "Nothing seems to faze him, really. I try to get under his skin even in practice, and he's calm as a cucumber. He takes his level to another game, and you've seen it the last couple of years and even this year, it's just going to another level."
Oettinger has the physical tools to be good. He is listed at 6-6, 224 pounds and was drafted in the first round (26th overall) in 2017. But Nill said he also was helped by fate along the way. COVID forced the NHL to move into a playoff bubble in 2020, and Oettinger was taken along as a reserve. He played parts of two games, but more importantly he was in the two-month lockdown with the Stars, so he was present for meetings, practices and games as the team advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.
The next couple of years had Oettinger bouncing back and forth from the AHL to the NHL, and he learned a great deal in the process.
“We’ve got a lot of guys on our team who are great COVID stories, and he's one of them,” Nill said. “He comes to the bubble as a third goalie. We get through COVID and we sent him down and that was a tough discussion to say, ‘Jake you have to go down and play.’ He wasn’t happy, but he dealt with it the right way, very mature, went down and did what he was supposed to do. We had injuries up top, he came in and never looked back. It just shows the mature level of him.”
Oettinger said he appreciates all of the experience and said he has tried to build on the highs and the lows.
“I've said in the past it's almost easier when you're getting a lot of rubber, and you know when you face a shot every 10 minutes or so, that's when they feel really difficult,” Oettinger said of the high shot volume he’s seeing in the playoffs. “So yeah, I've faced a lot more since we're playing a lot more games.”
Coach Pete DeBoer said Oettinger’s calm gives the team calm.
“I feel he’s dialed in,” DeBoer said. “I feel he’s on a bit of a mission here and I think coming up short two years in a row, or getting that far and then not breaking through to get to a Final, that has to be your mindset. How do we go to the next step this year? I feel like he’s got that mindset that he’s going to do everything he can to try and get us there.”
And Oettinger said he doesn’t have to do it alone. He’s got several teammates who have been through what he has.
"I think we've learned a lot the last two years," Oettinger said. "The young guys that hadn't had any experience, we have all the experience in the world now. It's up to us as a group to take that next step and I think we should feel great about what we've done with the adversity we've faced. I think our best hockey is yet to come."
